Category Archives: Asia

Day 12 On to our final destination, Lake Toba. We were met by Zulham at 7:30 at Green Hill. He had been there since 6am, as he and the driver, Ochuk, left Medan around 3am! We had breakfast, trekked to … Continue reading →

Sumatra day 9 -Medan Today we toured some of the cultural sites of Medan with Zulham and his family. The first stop was the Grand Mosque. When we entered the grounds, we saw a school group looking at some of … Continue reading →

Sumatra Days 6, 7, and 8 The adventure continues with a new destination today – Banda Aceh. We left the hotel early as we were not sure about the traffic to the airport. Got there in 15 minutes, checked in … Continue reading →

Our third day in Sumatra really got us immersed into the culture of West Sumatra. We started out by going for a 30 minute walk around the area near where we were staying after experiencing the early wake up call … Continue reading →

We got up early thanks to jet lag, packed up and headed to Changi Airport to catch our 8am flight to Pekanbaru, in Riau province, central Sumatra. Changi airport has a huge range of restaurants and shops, and so we … Continue reading →

I bought the new DA 55 300 mm zoom lens as my primary lens for photographing orangutans in the jungle in Indonesia. I also brought along my prime Limited lens the FA 77 mm lens. The difference in the quality … Continue reading →

I have now had my new iPad for a month. I took this iPad traveling with me to Southeast Asia for a vacation as well as for business. The primary use of the iPad on vacation was to back up … Continue reading →

We headed for Jakarta that evening and spent the weekend there to celebrate the marriage of Desi’s daughter Asih to her American husband Karras. It had been 15 years since we were last in Jakarta, and it seemed cleaner and … Continue reading →

Makassar was a bustling town of about 1.5M people and seemed to be comparatively wealthier than we thought it would be for such a remote location. It is the administrative hub of eastern Indonesia and the main city on the … Continue reading →